Today's rumor has the fans in an uproar -- it's being reported that the show will be going on hiatus in 2016. The thinking behind this, dubiously, is that the Beeb wants Moffatt to focus on Sherlock and step down from Doctor Who, but The Moff is being resistant.

Regardless of the behind the scenes politics (he does need to step down), I think taking a break is a good idea. NuWho has become such a frenetic and global phenomenon that it can't simply tick along like the classic show did. It almost develops its own franchise fatigue by the end of each season. I think the 10th Doctor's outro -- a series of lengthy specials versus a regular season -- was brilliantly handled. It gave you Who when you needed Who and always kept you wanting more. It also made Matt Smith's freshman year more interesting, as we were ready for a full season at that point.

I think I can be classified as a pretty die-hard fan and, I have to say, despite that fandom, and my love for Capaldi, I feel pretty exhausted by the show as we veer into season nine. Last season, like so many NuWho seasons, was mishandled. I'd be more forgiving if we weren't facing what appears to be a continuation/conclusion of the meandering season 8.

The show needs to find its roots again, I think. It needs to take a breath and slow down and just concentrate on telling good stories about someone who really is, very simply, just a madman in a police box and nothing else.

After appearing in a small role in An Adventure In Space And Time, the BBC’s dramatization of the beginning of Doctor Who, Reece Shearsmith will now be making the jump to actual Doctor Who in what Deadline is calling “a special episode.” Mark Gatiss wrote the episode, and he refers to it as “very scary,” but that’s all we know about it except that it will be a part of the show’s new season that starts on September 19. However, this casting announcement is especially notable because Shearsmith played Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor, in An Adventure In Space And Time.

Now, as cool as it would be, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Shearsmith is playing the second Doctor. Deadline says the episode will be “special,” but Gatiss only says it will be “scary.” We assume that if one of the other Doctors were going to appear on the show—even if it’s a different actor playing one of the other Doctors—the BBC would make a big deal about it. It’d put out press releases confirming it, it’d release images of Shearsmith in costume, and it’d do everything it could to let us all know how exciting it’d be. Since the BBC isn’t doing those things, Shearsmith is probably just playing someone who isn’t The Doctor. Still, you never know. He could be The Doctor wearing a disguise.

We have yet to answer who the old woman was in The End of Time. We know Susan has a life beyond Dalek Invasion of Earth. It would be really easy and smart to bring her back in, and it would be an awesome thing for the show to do, and we'd all really love it.

Former Doctor David Tennant has been spotted on the set during the filming of season 9.

Though we're revisiting his episodes twice -- The Fires of Pompeii (to stupidly address why Peter Capaldi is the Doctor and also a former one-off character in a Tennant episode, even though that's the nature of the business and half the previous Doctors also had roles in the show before they were cast as the Doctor and nobody wants this to be a "mystery" that needs "explaining") and The Day of the Doctor.

Today's out of control Doctor Who/Who is Maisie Williams rumor is theorizing about her buddies in the trailer -- the lion creature, which looks suspiciously like the Cheetah People from the final episode of the classic series.

Noteworthy that, when last we saw The Master in the classic series, he was trapped with the Cheetah People. So we round back to Maisie being another incarnation of The Master pre- or post-Missy.

(Though they also look like the Tharils, with whom we last saw Romana. Which means this is one huge red herring because Tharils + snarkily calling the Doctor "old man" very clearly = Romana and, therefore, we're being misled and she probably is someone new and kind of boring.)

Somebody tweeted “Agent Carter” star Hayley Atwell this weekend asking if she’d like to be on the British family series “Doctor Who.”

Her response: “I’d like to BE Doctor Who.”

The BBC should snap her ass up. I don’t recall any actor who was already the lead in an American TV show before getting tapped to play The Doctor.

She’s already played Peggy Carter in eight episodes of “Agent Carter,” two “Captain America” movies, a Blu-ray short, “Ant-Man” and “Agents of SHIELD.” Another, longer season of “Agent Carter” is on the way.

Were I King Of The BBC, I’d be phoning her agents, before ABC cancels “Agent Carter” and before Peter Capaldi starts moaning about the long shooting hours.

Also, I'd order "Who" showrunner Stephen Moffat to write in a female companion who finds the Atwell Doctor very attractive.

Nacho, you seem opposed to a female doctor. I feel like there could be some exceptional comedic value from the concept.

Though there's an interesting comment on that article that basically say, "Shut up about Elba and Atwell for a bit and let Capaldi do his job." He does seem to have really taken ownership of the role, no?

A female Doctor is a problem for me, yes. But then we've gotten so far away from who and what the Doctor is, maybe it doesn't matter? I mean, would you be happy with a female Captain Kirk? Maybe...

Atwell would be a good pick. But you'd have to be at that level of zaniness and pop cultureness. You couldn't, say, put Mirren or someone in there. A female Doctor would be forced to play with the fact that she's female. Much like Michelle Gomez clumsily spent her first episode post-reveal as the Master talking about how she was now a she. That's the real problem. They'd spend a whole season joking and talking about it.

Gomez as a female Master was, simply, wasted because they were so taken with the idea of a female regeneration. Her little mysterious cameos throughout the season were amazing, but then we had to spend one of her only two episodes as the Master going on and on about her femaleness -- kissing the Doctor, grabbing her breasts, catting it up.